Monday, March 30, 2015

The puppies have been keeping me busy here on the farm. I had been able to let them outside by themselves, but now they have started roaming. I found them out in the pasture yesterday, and today I found them out by the road. I can't have that happening. So, we are going to set up the dog kennel for when we can't go outside with them. I know they won't be happy with it, but I'm going to be staying outside with them most of the times and they can run loose if I'm out there. And boy do they like to run!!!! Those little buggers are fast!

We took them to their first vet visit just last week. They were 10 weeks old and Holley weighed 18.89 lbs and Chassis weighed 18.08. They are going to be big Aussies. They got their second shots and wormed. They did great. But of course they puked inside their cage when I came up the bumpy dirt road. See! Even the puppies hate how bad our road is! lol

The pups have started to develop their personalities. Holley is the adventurous one. She is like the tomboy of the two. She will be the first one in trouble, she will be the first one to jump on Jack in the mornings, and I guarantee she will be the first one in the pond. I dread that day....... Long haired dogs with pond scum is something I'm not looking forward too.

Chassis is more of the girly girl. She is more laid back, she likes to snuggle, and she thinks she's pretty. lol. Although, she can run around in the weeds like the best of them. Jack likes her best, as of now. He will lay on his back and let her play around his face.

Holley uses Jack as a spring board. She will run out of the house as fast as she can, and bounce off of him and keep on running. She will then make a big circle and come back and jump in his face. I can see on Jacks face he is thinking, " Go away kid, your bothering me." LOL!!! But, he's a good boy and tolerates them playing. It seems he knows just how easy to play with them.

Another thing we've done since I've last posted, was go to my niece's first birthday party. It's hard to believe she is one year old. Time sure does fly. She's still a little tiny thing but she is growing.

She likes to play Dad's guitar.

Us adults were treated to some wonderful cupcakes that were made by Gracie's Aunt.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

I have been feeling, well, not so fit lately. Of course when you are my size that's not uncommon. So, I thought I would do something about it and try to be more flexible. I was going to try yoga.......I've been telling myself for years that yoga would help me get stronger and have more flexibility. So I decided that today was the day. No more excuses.

So I got my yoga pants on. (Oh who am I kidding? I already had them on. lol) I looked on Youtube for "yoga for beginners" videos. I found quite a few of them. Good! I would have many to choose from. As I was looking through them, I noticed one for beginners and weight loss. Great!!! Two birds with one stone!

I clicked on it to see what it was like. A cheery, squeaky voiced, tooth pick of a girl was trying to tell me to sit like she was and if I couldn't I should use a blanket. Of course she said she didn't need it so she wasn't going to use it. I made it through 3 minutes with the squeaky cheerleader and had to change videos.

The next one I watched I thought I could handle. So I got on the floor (concrete floor. I didn't have a yoga mat yet.) with my blanket and tried to do what she was doing. Inhale....exhale..... I can do this. Now bring your legs in and sit cross legged. When I was young, we called that Indian style. Well, I did the best I could, even with a blanket tucked under my bum. Raise your arms over your head slowly. Inhale....exhale..... Reach for the sky. Yep, still can do it.

Then she said to get up on all fours. With bad knees and a concrete floor, it wasn't too comfortable, but I did it. She said to arch your back like a cat, then do the opposite and bring your belly down towards the floor. I wasn't real good at this, but I did it. I think the concrete and the knees had something to do with this.

Next move she said to do what is called the downward dog. Place you feet on the floor while your hands were still on the floor and push your bum up into the air making an A out of your body. I did. All of this time, she is telling me to inhale..... and exhale.... Well, what this little stick figure of a woman didn't understand, is that big breasted women CAN'T inhale and exhale in this position. I was being smothered! Blood was rushing to my head and my face was turning red. All the time I was hearing this little voice in the background, "Inhale......Exhale...." . Surely this woman has never had big boobs! I was about to pass out!

After about another minute of this misery, I gave up and watched a cat video. There. That made me fill better.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

I wasn't sure if I should write this story but the people I told it to say I just HAD to write it. It's extremely embarrassing to me,but at the same time, extremely funny. I just want to warn you though, if you have any aversion to stories about body functions, do not read this. I repeat...DO NOT READ THIS! You have been warned.

We have been hit with a massive snow storm here in KY. We ended up getting around 18 inches of snow. Now if you don't really know how deep 18 inches are, just imagine on ME that's just a little over knee high snow. That's a lot of snow! Nothing was moving for a while. No cars could go anywhere because they kept bottoming out in the deep snow.

Anyways, my parents had to go up to my sisters house in Ohio before the storm hit. My niece was sick and in the hospital. (She's better now. YAY!) While they were up there Hubby and I were to feed their dogs. That normally was no big deal, but when you have 18 inches of snow, it's kinda hard to go up half a mile of driveway with a steep switchback in the middle of it. We figured we could do it though.

We started out okay at the beginning. We were pushing snow with our small SUV. The snow was so deep it was coming up over the hood and hitting the windshield. We made it up to the switch back in the road and then we got stuck. We couldn't make it up the hill. We slid and bottomed out. We were stuck. I told Hubby that we were gonna have to hoof it to the top of the hill. Not fun when you are doing this in really deep snow. Luckily we had on our tall Muck boots. (Worth every penny we spent on them.) We started to walk the hill when all of a sudden, I had an extreme urge to pee. I mean, gonna explode pee. We had just eaten at a Mexican restaurant before we went to feed the dogs. It was the first time we had been out for a while, might as well enjoy it. Anyway, I had a lot of water to drink and I guess I should have went to the bathroom before I left the restaurant.

So, I tell Hubby to go on up without me. I would be up in a minute. I go back to the car and look for napkins. Ladies, you understand me when I say napkins in the glove box of a car are essential. There was 2. That's it. Only 2 small, tiny tissues. Well, they would just have to work.

Then all of a sudden, I had this feeling. The feeling deep down in your bowls of rumbling. The feeling that if at any moment you would have to sneeze, you had better be on a toilet. Great....... The Mexican restaurant had given me food poisoning, and all I had was 2 tinky, tiny, napkins........

Well, if you are a homesteader, I'm sure you have used the bathroom outside. I've never done it though, in snow that was almost up to my hiney. So as I'm squatting to pee, the food poisoning hits me again. BAM! No control...... Great. In my mind though I thought,"I can handle this. No one will know. I've went in outhouses before, what's the difference? Right?" Girls, I don't know if you have ever tried to wipe standing up..... Sure no problem when your setting down, but standing in thigh high snow is another story. I swear I was doing some yoga moves that they hadn't even invented yet. And all this time trying not to plant it into the deep snow.

Anyway, once I was "done," I threw some snow over the evidence and tried to keep it from being so conspicuous. I didn't want anyone to know what I had done. I wondered what I could do with my 2 tiny napkins? "I got it! I would just throw them in the small creek on the other side of the car. They were biodegradable."

I trekked around to the other side of the car and threw them in the swiftly running creek and as I was coming back around to where I had done the deed, I glanced up into the trees and noticed a CAMERA!!!!!! My dad had his field camera mounted on a tree, aimed in my direction. AAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! The whole thing was caught on camera!!!!!!!! I'm gonna die!!!!!!!! You might as well kill me now!

I finally made it up to my parents house and instantly called my mom. Of course while I'm telling her this, she's laughing so hard she can't breath so she puts me on speaker phone for alllllllll the people around her to hear. Gotta love your parent's since of humor. I'm begging her to get the camera and delete the pictures before Dad sees them. There are just some things that you don't want your dad to see after a certain age, and me pooping in the woods is one of them.

So the moral of the story is, don't just assume that you are alone in the woods. Someone is ALWAYS watching......

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, shameless

P.s. You would think the old question of "Does the bear poop in the woods?" would have already been solved......

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

As I type this it 45 degrees and raining hard. I found out today, while I was doing chores in the downpour, I still like rain much better than I like snow. I will gladly trudge through water with my Muck boots while I dump water pans and change out hay in the rabbit pens.

For the last million few days, it's been nothing but an ice skating rink around here. We had some snow around the first of February and it has been cold and snowy ever since. Today, TODAY, is the first day that I actually got to see grass. The chickens were happy because they got to go outside and scratch around. Although everything was under water, they didn't care. I understand chickens, I understand.....

Now for the bad news........ We are suppose to get 12 inches of snow tonight. That's right, a FOOT of snow. I think I'm going to cry...

(taken with cell phone)

This is the last of the snow/ice that slid off our roof to land in front of our door. I'm sure there will be more tomorrow.......

I'm so done with this winter. I don't even want to look at the seed magazines that I'm getting in the mail. I don't want to get my hopes up. I keep telling myself that surely there won't be any snow in June. But, the way this winter is going, I'm not even sure that is true.

Monday, March 2, 2015

We have come up with names for the puppies. The black one is named Holley. The blue merle is called Chassis. Can ya tell I live with a gear head. He just had to name them after car part. lol. They know their names already. I can call one and it come to me. I can call the other and then she will come to me. Unless they are outside. Holley LOVES to be outside and doesn't want to come back in. Chassis, well she likes it for a little while, but she's ready to come in a lot faster than Holley. Of course, it's still cold and snowy outside. I just know she will love it when it gets warmer. We ALL will........

So far the puppies have very distinct personalities. Holley is more independent. She will go and do her own thing. Chassis is more a people puppy. She wants to be with people all the time. She wants to please you as best as she can. Holley, well........... she's a whole other story. I should have called her Miss Independent.

In this picture, Hubby was trying to get the puppies to come back into the house. As you can see, Chassis was all for it. Holley, not so much. HA!

About Me

I grew up on 2 acres of land north of Columbus OH. Mom had a small garden,I had a horse,and Dad had his tractor, but we were far from what you would call homesteaders. It wasn't until I moved to Kentucky and married my husband did I start to have a small interest in growing a garden again. We have a few head of cattle, a small herd of horses, a flock of chickens and 2 dogs. And the garden, it keeps growing and growing each year. We decided we want to be more self-reliant. I don't know much about homesteading, but I'm willing to learn as I go. Oh, this could get good.